Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

A few weeks ago, Emily and I did a guest post over at The Mother Huddle as part of their Story Book Recipe series.  The Mother Huddle is a great blog that we have lots in common with.  The ladies over there are also sewing, crafting, and doing plenty of kid-friendly activities, so please pop over and see what else they are up to.

As you know, both Emily and I love reading good books to our kids, and one way to make story time even more exciting is to bake something related to our favourite books.  Monster Mama by Liz Rosenberg, illustrated by Stephen Gammell is among our very favourite books.  The story is clever and the illustrations are so fun.  I just love the messy illustrations in all of Gammell's work.

When we found out about the Storybook Recipe series, Emily knew that this would be the perfect book to highlight.  We immediately thought of making 'messy' sugar cookies with the kids, since the pictures are full of life, colour, and look a little 'messy' as well.  Sweet sugar cookies with drippy and goopy icing are just the thing for a couple of preschool aged children.

While his cousin enjoyed the story (in Alberta), my son helped with making and mixing the cookie dough (here in New England).



We used my best sugar cookie recipe.  My husband, who usually complains that sugar cookies aren't nearly as sweet as you would think based on how much sugar goes into them, loves this recipe.  I love it too, and it is always the one I make despite the fact that it takes a little extra time to properly chill the dough.  After it had chilled, I rolled it out, and he cut out our shapes.

After our cookies were baked and cool, the fun began!  I had some leftover cream cheese icing in my fridge, so I spooned a little into several small ziplock bags with a couple of drops of food colouring in each bag.  You could mix the icing yourself, but this part is fun for kids and doesn't make a mess (win-win).



My son and his friend had a great time squishing the bags to mix the icing.



Once the icing was all mixed together, they decorated their cookies.  I clipped one corner from each bag and let them squeeze the icing all over their cookies.  The cookies were drippy and goopy looking, a lot like the illustrations, and they tasted just as sweet as the book.  This part was pretty fun! 



Oh, and of course they liked eating them too!  And so did I, since I'm not one to say no to a cream cheese cookie with cream cheese icing.     



Here is the recipe for your cookie making, decorating, and eating enjoyment:

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 almond and 1/2 vanilla)
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1. Combine everything except for flour in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until smooth.
2. Stir in flour until combined.  At this point, the dough will be very soft.
3. Chill in refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
4. Remove dough from refrigerator and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Roll out 1/3 of dough at a time to 1/8" thickness onto a floured surface.  The dough will still be soft, so be sure your hands and rolling pin are covered with flour as well.  Cut out shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters. 
6. Bake on cookie sheets (I like to use my silpat) for 7-10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
7. Wait until cookies are completely cooled to decorate (I used a simple cream cheese frosting, but any kind would work).